Maybe I can help you decide who to market to

It is not as difficult as you might think. When you try to narrow down who your target market is, you need to think about the types of people you know best.

Your network marketing company will try to convince you that your friends, family, coworkers and neighbors are your primary target market. I can see their point of view. These are the people who you have a great relationship with. Since network marketing is, at its core, a relationship business, it would seem a good place to start.

My big question about that strategy is, who in the group of people do you think could run a business, successfully. If you bring a great marketing system to the table and you are ready, willing and able to teach your family how to use the method, then by all means start with them.

I have found that your family and friends know you. They know that you probably haven’t run a business either. So why would they trust you to, not only be successful but to teach them how to be successful too?

My suggestion for who to market to is not your family, friends, or coworkers. When you approach these people you come to them with little or no authority. You are basically on the same level as they are. If a different marketer approached them, they would have an easier time portraying authority. They would have an easier time recruiting your own family members. It’s strange, but true! You can always come back to your family when you have achieved even a little bit of success. They want to know that you can do it before they even think about it.

Who to market to, this will tell the tale

When it comes to who to market to, there are two main types of people that I would suggest the you start with. Current and former network marketers and members of your affinity groups.

I’ll start with MLMers. Anyone who has been in network marketing knows how the system works. They don’t have to be convinced that network marketing is a good business model. They already understand that. They believe in it. Talking to these type of person is a lot less work. Anyone who has chased family and friends around town and tried to “trick” them into joining, knows it’s easier to talk an MLMer.

If they are a former network marketer, they probably have tried one or more MLM companies and have never got to where they wanted to go. But they still believe that it is possible to make money in it. Now, you may happen upon a former MLMer who is mad about not making money. That is not who you want to market to. They would be very difficult to work with, so move on.

When you market to current MLMers, you have a 99% chance of talking to someone who is not making any money but, is still trying. They are feeling very frustrated, confused and overwhelmed. They have, more than likely, been left out in the cold. No one is helping them. They want to make this work but, they have no idea how to be successful. These are the nearly perfect people, when you think about who to market to.

The only thing that you need to convince them of is that you will show them a real marketing plan that will work. They probably don’t want you to the work for them, they just need a little help from time to time to put them on the right path. The more people you find like this the better off you will be in the long run!

The second type of people to market to are your affinity groups. An affinity group is a group of people that come together because they have something in common. A few examples of affinity groups would be different clubs. Such as the Elks, MOPS groups, professional associations or ski clubs. There are a lot of ski clubs out there. There are any number of ways that you would have something in common with a group of people.

I’ll use myself as an example. If I sat down to decide who to market to, first, I might start with other people who own their own businesses. I have owned my own business for 27 years. I know all the problems a small business owner will face. Just trying to stay in business is difficult. In this kind of economy, the profit has been squeezed almost out of existence. Rules and regulations, taxes, dealing with employees, health care and the list goes on and on. There are many things to deal with everyday. Just ask them.

It’s a good time to target these types of people. They are ready to make supplemental income and a lot of them may be ready to make a career change. It’s really tough out there these days. You might be reluctant to approach them but they are probably willing to listen to anything these days.

Small business owners usually are not rich and with all of the headaches that they have, trust me, this is a good target market.

If you are a mom of teenagers, another example of who to market to might be mothers of preschoolers. You have survived those earlier childhood years. You know the kinds of problems these newer moms are facing. You know how you solved them. There are a lot of new moms out there who would love to hear that they are not the only ones … they are not alone!

Now it’s your turn to think about who to market to. You have a whole world out there to find others with whom you have something in common with. It really isn’t that hard to do. If you do not take this advice, you will probably be unsuccessful in your business.

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